Spectacular color pictures for the first time of Qajar women by Antoine Sorogin

After his death from a kidney infection, Sevruguin’s images resurfaced. He was survived by seven children from his marriage to Louise Gourgenian. In 1951–1952, an American historian of architecture, Myron Bement Smith, learned that 692 plates on glass by Sevrugian were up for sale at the American Presbyterian Mission. Smith bought the images for $200 USD, and when he died, Katharine Smith donated the photo plate archive to the Smithsonian Institution. Only 696 of Sevruguin’s negatives survive today.

May 6, 2023 | 11:13 pm